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Pro-Palestine encampment power cut, ordered to disband

A pro-Palestine encampment at a Victorian university has been ordered to disband and had its electricity cut due to “unacceptable behaviour”.

Deakin University deputy vice-chancellor Kerrie Parker ordered the “immediate dismantling and removal of the current encampment” at its Burwood campus, in an email to organisers on Monday evening.

“Your ability to undertake protest, political discourse and debate on Deakin campuses is not being infringed or curtailed,” Ms Parker wrote.

“The right to freedom of speech does not extend to the establishment of unauthorised camps which pose hygiene and safety risks and restrict the access, availability and use of Deakin premises.”

Ms Parker said students had initially agreed for the encampment to run from Tuesday, May 7 until Friday, May 10 and the protest was causing an impediment to the function of the campus.

• However, camp organisers are vowing to resist and have organised a rally in response to the eviction notice for Wednesday evening.Deakin Students for Palestine’s Jasmine Duff said security told the camp on Tuesday afternoon Deakin was cutting its power access.

  “The university has now had (security) shut down all of our power and access to electricity so we’re going to buy generators,” she told AAP.

  “I think Deakin is very embarrassed about their ties to weapons manufactures and they don’t want us telling other students about this.

  “If they were to look at America’s (student protests) they would learn that when encampments are repressed, they only grow.”

  In a social media post, the group reiterated its demand for the university’s vice-chancellor to meet with them and divest its ties with Israel and weapons manufacturers.

  By Tuesday afternoon, fewer than 30 students and a dozen tents were left.

  Premier Jacinta Allan called for calm.

  “Universities, they can be a place for protest,” she told reporters.

  “But that protest must be peaceful, it must be respectful and it also shouldn’t be compromising the safety of students who are going to university to further their education.”

  

  The Senate on Tuesday voted down a Greens motion to suspend standing orders to commend student encampments across Australia.

  Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi detailed repression and violence from police and universities against students protesting in the US.

  “This must not be mirrored here but sadly and shamefully it has already started at Deakin University,” she said.

  Liberal Sarah Henderson and Labor’s Anthony Chisholm spoke in opposition, accusing the Greens of seeking to divide the community.

  It comes after more than 1000 people attended an event at Monash University’s Clayton campus on Monday night for a Yom HaZikaron event, which commemorates Israeli victims of terror.

  About 100 of these were pro-Palestine supporters.

  Police attended but no arrests were made.

  Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said protesters chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at attendees was a “provocative act”.

  “One of the really disappointing things is that I reckon if you asked those people chanting it, heaps of them wouldn’t have a clue, wouldn’t be able to find the Jordan (River) on a map,” he told 3AW.

  “It’s beyond me why people would think that it advances their cause to engage in this sort of behaviour,” he said.

  

  Monash University’s Students for Palestine group have asked supporters to join their encampment before the start of a pro-Israel rally on campus on Tuesday afternoon.

  A University of Melbourne spokeswoman said its encampment was disrupted on Sunday night by counter protesters wearing masks and hoodies.

  The small group entered its Parkville campus and “aggressively harassed” a group on the University’s South Lawn, she said.

  PRO-PALESTINE ENCAMPMENTS AT AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES:

  * NSW: University of Sydney, University of Wollongong

  * VIC: University of Melbourne, Deakin University, Monash University, RMIT University, Latrobe University

  * SA: University of Adelaide

  * QLD: University of Queensland

  * WA: Curtin University

  * TAS: University of Tasmania

  * ACT: Australian National University.

AAP

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